Title
Cenozoic batoids from Contamana (Peruvian Amazonia) with focus on freshwater potamotrygonins and their paleoenvironmental significance
Date Issued
01 December 2017
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Chabain J.
Antoine P.O.
Marivaux L.
Pujos F.
Adnet S.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Masson s.r.l.
Abstract
Among the ichthyofaunal remains collected in the Tertiary deposits of Peruvian Amazonia, elasmobranchs show an unexpected richness of rays, consisting primarily of mostly potamotrygonins (river stingrays), but also pristids (sawfishes) and rhinopterids (cownose rays). Among the Potamotrygoninae subfamily and in addition to the middle Eocene Potamotrygon ucayalensis found in oldest levels, three new fossil species of Potamotrygon, namely P. contamanensis nov. sp., P. canaanorum nov. sp., and P. rajachloeae nov. sp. are described from late Oligocene-late Miocene deposits along the Quebrada Cachiyacu, near Contamana, Peru. These new fossils fill a substantial gap in the sporadic fossil record of this exclusive freshwater elasmobranch subfamily, native to South America, thereby highlighting their ancient biological and ecological diversity. In the absence of sharks, the occurrence of obligate freshwater potamotrygonins, along with additional marine to brackish batoids from nine successive fossiliferous levels, supports the predominance of fluvio-lacustrine environments in that region throughout the considered period, with a peak of marine influence around the middle-late Miocene transition, as recorded in other areas of Western Amazonia.
Start page
389
End page
400
Volume
50
Issue
June 5
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Paleontología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85033780433
Source
Geobios
ISSN of the container
00166995
Sponsor(s)
We thank everybody from the Canaan Shipibo Native Community near Contamana city (Loreto Department, Peruvian Amazonia), the IRD-PeruPetro Convention Program, and Maple Gas Peru S.A. for access to the field. Many thanks to Manuel and Manuel, for their long standing help in the forest during the field seasons. We also thank T. Cook, P. Brito and M.R. Carvalho for their criticisms and suggestions on the manuscript. The 2011-2016 field expeditions of this project were supported by the CNRS (ISE-M Paleontology Department, Montpellier, France), the Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Foundation, and the ANR PALASIAFRICA (ANR-08-JCJC-0017, ANR-ERC). Previous field seasons of this project in the Contamana area were granted by the CNRS “Eclipse 2”, CNRS “Paleo2”, and Toulouse University “SPAM” programs to P.O.A. This work was supported by an “Investissements d’Avenir” grant managed by the French ANR (CEBA, ANR-10-LABX-25-01). This work is also in the framework of two cooperative programs, ECOS-FonCyt (2015-2017) and CoopIntEER CNRS-CONICET (2015-2016). This is ISEM publication n o 2017-243 SUD.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus